The Protestation of the General Assemblie...

Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection

Facsimile of the title page of the The Protestation of the Generall Assemblie..., 1638, the first publication printed in Glasgow.

In November 1638, around 150 ministers and 100 elders met at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow Covenanters, who were determined to resist King Charles I's attempts to re-impose episcopal church government on the country, dominated the Assembly . Its members defied instructions from the king's Lord High Commissioner, the Marquess of Hamilton, to dissolve. Indeed, the Assembly went further in its defiance of the King, by abolishing episcopacy (the rule of the church by bishops). The dispute led to the outbreak of the First Bishops' War between Royalists and Covenanters.

The Protestation was published by George Anderson (d 1647) who may have come to Glasgow from Edinburgh specifically to publish the material.

Reference: GC 941.435 OLD

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning